The University of Basel, Switzerland, has been conducting an overarching archaeological project on “Life Histories of Theban Tombs” (LHTT) at the ancient hillside cemetery of Sheikh ‘Abd el-Qurna (SAQ) in Western Thebes since November 2015. In cooperation with partners at the ETH and the University of Zurich and an international expert team, LHTT investigates two clusters of mostly unfinished rock-cut tombs from the beginning of the Middle Kingdom (1900–1750 BCE) and the mid-Eighteenth Dynasty (c. 1450‒1400 BCE). The latter group of tombs can be understood as part of a planned cemetery opened for a small elite with close personal links to Pharaohs Thutmose III and Amenhotep II. These tombs share a long use history. Distinction can be made between their “systemic” use, including their creation, decoration, use and reuse as sacred spaces for burials and cultic performance during Antiquity (not excluding phases of severe looting and damage), and “non-systemic” use in more recent times, notably as dwelling space for Coptic monks from the 6th to the 8th centuries CE, as well as modern villagers during the 19th and 20th centuries. The project promotes the interaction between Egyptology, archaeology, art history, philology, physical anthropology, natural and computer sciences, geomatics, and several archaeometrical fields. It also aims at analysing the emergence and life cycles of the investigated tombs in their natural and built environment. Research focuses on landscape development, including recent activities in the cemetery and in individual tombs, tomb construction and decoration practices, reception, and funerary and domestic (re)uses of the tombs over time. The archaeological site stretches over the western and central parts of the SAQ hill; it includes an area covered by a huge cone of debris (AU1000) and comprises two clusters of rock cut tombs: TT95A‒C and K85 in the west, and TT84-K453-K90-K555 in the centre of the hillside. Tomb K555 was, until recently, buried beneath debris accumulations of AU1000. It is currently being excavated (courtyard and inner halls). To the east of TT84 lie the remains of a construction site (AU6000), which were also re-excavated. The publication plan is divided in two axes. On the one hand, groups of relevant finds from the first cluster of tombs (TT95A–C and K85) are the subject of various separate articles, some of which are already published in a single volume (see Gnirs (ed.) 2021). On the other hand, the complete study of the decorative programmes of TT84 and K555 (texts and iconography), including archaeological finds from the recent excavations of K555 and area AU1000, is ongoing.